PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.oxfordscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2020. All Rights Reserved. An individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use. date: 07 June 2020

Addressing the Altruism Question Experimentally

Addressing the Altruism Question Experimentally

Chapter:

(p.89)
6 Addressing the Altruism
Question Experimentally

Source:

Altruism and Altruistic Love

Author(s):

C. Daniel Batson

Publisher:

Oxford University Press

DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195143584.003.0010

Everything we do, no matter how noble and seemingly self-sacrificial, is really directed toward the ultimate goal of self-benefit. Comte considered altruism and egoism to be two distinct motives within the individual. The strong form of psychological hedonism is inconsistent with the possibility of altruism, but to affirm this form is simply to assert universal egoism. Collectivism is motivation to benefit a particular group as a whole. Different forms of prosocial motivation are usually assumed to be mutually supportive and cooperative. Altruism, collectivism, and principlism are often confused or equated. There is a logical limit to the experimental tests of the empathy-altruism hypothesis.

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PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.oxfordscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2020. All Rights Reserved. An individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use. date: 07 June 2020